Monday, July 23, 2018

Not A Bystander art collection

Candlelight

Project Graphic: Photo taken August 22, 2014, candlelight vigil. A group of Edmontonians gathered at Churchill Square for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of an aboriginal teen girl recently found murdered in Winnipeg.
On Sunday, Tina Fontaine,15, was found wrapped up in a bag and dumped in the Red River in Winnipeg. She had been in the city for less than a month and had run away from her foster home. Edmonton Sun

After the vigil we all walked together down to the North Saskatchewan river in darkness, each carrying a candle. I knew the area so I was elected to lead the way to a floating dock behind the Shaw Conference center. We each placed our candles into the river and they floated downstream forming a long necklace of light into the night.

She smiles after all that

Vimy-Not a Bystander

Non Violence Oilers Jersey

The Oilers Jersey was added to this art project as a third installment after the Oilers hockey team eliminated the San Jose Sharks during playoff season. Reports by local news media surfaced of a boy being bullied at the game and a woman being punched in the face after a game. Both were wearing San Jose jerseys. These acts of fan violence may have jinxed the home team's winning abilities in a City once known as Champions.The 2017 Not a Bystander art project began late March 2017 after I conducted a survey over 2 days in front of City Hall and next to the Alberta Legislature. It was determined from my survey that I should create an art project that inspires hope and promotes healing while focusing on the difficult topics of anger, violence and bullying. Several people surveyed said we get enough bad news everyday from the news media, so keep it positive. Survey Link

My 2016 Fire and Rain art project helped

influence my 2017 Not a Bystander art project

5 AM in morning darkness preparing my canvas for a painting

September 21, 2016: 5 AM this morning I prepared a canvas using a projector and sketch study I drew last week during one of my outdoor art shows in front of the Alberta Legislature. Titled "On guard for thee." This painting became the new signature painting for my 2016 Fire and Rain art project after I had destroyed my original signature painting in a fit of anger, rage and frustration after being verbally banned on the Alberta Legislature grounds a 3rd time by an official with Alberta Legislature Visitors Services.

Original signature painting destroyed

Fire and Rain, Prospect Point

Losing my cool and destroying something I loved prompted me to look in the mirror and say to myself "I must try to never allow my emotions to get the better of me" The following year my next art project would focus my canvases on anger, violence and bullying and my own anger issues would become an integral part of my art project. The 2016 Fire and Rain art project.